Chipping machines are commonly used for reducing vegetation, ranging from branches and twigs to logs and tree trunks, into “chips”. That is, fragments of a relatively uniform range of relatively smaller sizes for subsequent disposal or for various uses, such as the manufacture of various wood and vegetation derivative products or the fueling power plants or heating systems.
A typical chipping machine generally comprises a chipping drum rotating at a relatively high rotational speed within a chipping chamber for receiving various forms and sizes of vegetation via an input chute or conveyer. The chipping drum and the interior of the chipping chamber are typically provided with some form of chipping teeth or strikers and cooperating anvils which, in combination with the chipping drum, reduce the inputted vegetation to chips of a relative uniform range of sizes. The chips are then expelled through an output chute and into a receiving area or container, such as a storage compartment of a truck or a trailer.
The dimensions of the elements of a chipping machine will vary depending upon the sizes of the vegetation to be chipped and may range, for example, from backyard sized units, for small landscaping projects, or larger truck or trailer mounted units for substantial clearing and cleanup, such as may be required in major landscaping projects and building site development, to very large units such as may be used in logging or wood product harvesting operations or in large land clearance operations.
In general, however, a chipping machine of a given size will be capable of dealing efficiently with an economically acceptable range of vegetation sizes and types, so that the typical range of vegetation size and type in a given region of use generally does not present a problem with regard to economically sufficient utilization of the machine.
A recurring problem with chipping machines, however, is that a given machine may be required to discharge chips into a variety of different receptacles along a corresponding variety of different trajectories. In one instance, for example, a chipping machine may be required to deposit the chips into a receptacle or receiving area, such as through a rear end of a loading truck or a trailer, wherein the chips must be propelled into the truck or the trailer along a generally horizontal trajectory. In another instance, the machine may be required to discharge the chips into a receptacle or receiving area, such as through the top opening of a top loading truck or trailer, wherein the chips must be propelled along a generally vertically downward trajectory into the receptacle or receiving area.
While a given chipping machine may be adapted to horizontal or downward discharge trajectories, such adaptations have typically required mechanical modification of the chipping machine discharge chute by, for example, the replacement of one type of discharge chute with another or at least the replacement of a significant part of the discharge chute by a section having a different mechanical design specific to the desired chip discharge trajectory. Such modifications of a chipping machine, to adapt the machine to different chip discharge trajectories, is generally costly in both time and effort.
The problem is further compounded in that the discharge chute of a chipping machine, and in particular the discharge chute of a larger capacity chipping machine, is required to be of sufficient strength and durability to withstand the repeated and long term impact of the chips and other objects, such as stones and fragments of non-vegetable matter, etc., that may be of significant size and weight and that are typically traveling at significant speeds.
This, in turn, means that the parts that must be exchanged or added in order to modify the discharge trajectory of a chipping machine typically are of significant size and weight, thereby increasing the time and cost required to adapt a given machine to different discharge trajectories, as well as presenting a risk of serious injury to the personnel performing such adaptation(s).
The present invention provides a solution to these and related problems associated with the prior art devices.